20th to 24th June

As usual, we've had a busy week.  We've also had an unexpected visitor today (Wednesday) from Ofsted.  We will let you know what the feedback is as soon as we're allowed.

This week we've been talking about friendships with the children, to help them develop their social and emotional awareness.  Generally, we're trying to encourage skills such as listening and turn taking in conversations, all skills which help children form good relationships with their peers and with adults.

Another fun listening activity we've done is 'Noisy Neighbour' - one child plays an instrument without the others seeing what it is.  The rest of the children have to guess what kind of instrument makes that sound.

We've been doing a lot of 'Bertha the Bus' this week, which is an alliteration activity, designed to help the children get ready for reading.  The rhyme goes like this: 'Bertha the Bus is going to the Zoo, What will she see as she passes through?'  When Bertha stops, we pick out one item from the tin, and the children have to say what it is, and what sound it starts with.  Today (Wednesday) the sound was 'f'.  Then the children sorted all the things that Bertha saw - these were all types of animals and insects, but one item was left over - a sandal.  Learning to sort and categorise is an important skill for early mathematical development.

The children have also been looking at snails and other mini beasts with their new bug viewers.  Outside in the rain we have been having fun with powder paints and enjoying splashing.  If anyone has some more children's umbrellas, we would really welcome some extras - the British summer is proving very unreliable and it's a good thing we have our marquee!

We've also done some mat work this work - forward rolls, jumping, and so on.  The children love participating in physical activities such as this.

Finally, next week is 'pet week' so please let us have any pictures or photos of pets.